Story Notes: Therapy Session · 4:51am Dec 16th, 2021
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/1076280
Show me that smile again...
Ever have a story idea that won't go away until it's been written? This is one of those times.
What can I say, periodically I enjoy writing over-the-top screwball comedies. 1980s cartoons were notable for many things. Public service announcements were big (and I covered those in the long description). But perhaps the most obvious thing is there was almost always a child/teen protagonist tagging along with the main cast. Sometimes, these characters were the heroes/heroines (Megan & Penny, as seen in this fic). Periodically, they were the villains (Nicholas, seen in this story, as well as Brattina from Pound Puppies, and even Gargamel got an apprentice named Scruple in later seasons of The Smurfs). Many were tag-alongs (such as Daisy, Spike, and Flim Flam), often serving as someone to get captured by the villains (especially the girls, because 'damsel in distress' was a thing back then).
My hope is that this is written in a way that you need not be familiar with all (or even any) of the featured franchises to know what's going on.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/134542
As one can likely assume, I'm a fan of all six of the franchises featured here (seven if one counts Growing Pains). Officer Mahoney is from Police Academy which I'm not really all that big a fan of. It's not that I dislike it, but I've only ever seen the first movie, and that was many years ago.
Starting with Megan Williams, since she's the most relevant character featured, the My Little Pony franchise has a rich history. People who dismiss G1 are ignoring an action-packed series, one with an often darker tone than anything FIM has to offer. Yes, it has its cute moments, but so does Friendship Is Magic. In the original special, Rescue From Castle Midnight, Tirac is far, far creepier than his G4 counterpart. He kidnaps ponies to turn into dragons to pull his chariot. That's about all the character development he got - aside from fondling the bag containing the Rainbow of Darkness. The Rainbow of Darkness may need therapy worse than Megan.
Megan's roughly thirteen or so during the series, and she's sometimes joined by her younger siblings Daniel and Molly. She keeps the Rainbow of Light in a locket she wears around her neck, and it's one of the main weapons of the G1 ponies. She killed Tirac with it. Lavan was destroyed by the Princess Ponies' magic wands, shattering his crystal form (Megan was there for that, of course). The flories are living flowers that turn into giant monsters, sucking the life out of the flora of Paradise Estate. They're ultimately defeated by Optimus Prime. I mean, the Crab Nasties, the leader of which is voiced by none other than Peter Cullen using his Optimus Prime voice. Speaking of G1 voice actors, Spike is voiced by Charlie Adler, in pretty much the same voice he'd later use for Buster Bunny.
Laws broken: Surprisingly, none. Any crimes she would've committed were in the jurisdiction of the ponies and she was acting on their authority.
The reason she needs therapy? She went from being a normal child to being kidnapped by ponies and forced to become an action hero at the onset of puberty. She killed a centaur with a rainbow at age thirteen.
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/arknorth/art/Autobot-Downshift-27655286
I couldn't find any art of Spike I liked, so have Autobot Downshift instead.
Moving on to the other Hasbro franchise, for a series centered on a robot civil war, Spike Witwicky was featured prominently in Transformers.
Unlike the other characters featured here, Spike appears to be approximately eighteen during the course of the series. He's old enough to work a construction job alongside his father. G1 Transformers is the only continuity of the franchise I'm really familiar with. With the exception of Bumblebee, I don't care for the live action movies.
Laws broken: Tresspassing.
Why does he needs therapy? He's more than a teenager in a war zone, he's more than a teenager in a war zone filled with giant robots, he's a teenager in a war zone filled with giant robots in space. He once had his mind transferred into a pile of scrap metal Wheeljack had turned into a spare Autobot body ("Autobot X") in an obvious homage to Frankenstein while his human body was undergoing extensive reconstructive surgery.
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/kandlin/art/Mlp-penny-Gadget-Web800-555590359
Penny joins us from Inspector Gadget. I was unable to find her true last name, so I've substituted 'Gadget' since that appears to be how people refer to her as.
Penny has grown up into a self-righteous vigilante. She had her head screwed on pretty tight at ten, but she went nuts during her teen years and hasn't looked back. Penny was always hyper-competent and on the cutting edge of technology. That hasn't changed as she's aged. I picture her as working as a computer programmer, working odd hours, so she can primarily focus on fighting crime, and worry about the source of her income in her downtime. As for where her uncle is these days, that's intentionally left ambiguous. Is he still working for the Metro City Police, or has he been fired for gross incompetence? Did he get killed in a M.A.D. plot? Is that what made Penny go crazy?
Laws broken: Trespassing, interfering with police investigations, computer hacking.
Why does she need therapy? Let's see, she grew up living with her incompetent uncle, routinely goes on dangerous missions, and is forever getting caught, tied up, etc. And in this story, she's become a borderline sociopath.
The other DiC series featured here, Pole Position, was about as loosely based on the video game of the same name as you can get. The video game involves driving a Formula 1 race car around a track, trying to avoid hitting cars or obstacles (which will cause explosions). The series, however, is based on the crimefighting exploits of the Darrett family (Tess, who drives Wheels, a 1965 Ford Mustang; Dan, who drives Roadie, a futuristic gullwinged concept car, Daisy, their circa ten year old little sister, and their pet Kuma).
Daisy was a tag-along, rarely getting to do anything important in the series, though she did get captured frequently.
Laws broken: Trespassing, underage driving/driving without a license (she's the only one of these characters to be busted by the police, as seen in the screencap above).
Why does she need therapy? Frequently getting captured, multiple near-death experiences.
Care Bears is an interesting franchise. What started as a line of greeting cards turned into a multi-billion dollar cash cow for American Greetings. The first two animated specials were done by the now-defunct Atkinson Film Arts, while the aforementioned DiC did the first season of the cartoon. The movies were done by Nelvana, who also took over the series. Three different animation studios (not counting the 2000s revivals), three (or four depending on if you count Nutcracker Suite or not) movies, and lots and lots of merchandise. You can still walk into Walmart and buy a stuffed Care Bear nearly forty years later.
Nicholas Cherrywood is the antagonist from The Care Bears Movie. Sort of. He opens the Spirit Book who ultimately comes to possess him and forces him to cast spells that make everyone in the world stop caring.
Laws broken: Inciting a riot. Ironically, our reformed antagonist has a shorter rap sheet than most of the heroes!
Why does he need therapy? He was possessed by an evil book with a glowing green face.
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/stevenraybrown/art/Flim-Flam-283268023
This is a warning to all living mortals, that whosoever opens this Chest of Demons will release 13 of the most terrifying ghosts upon of the face of the Earth!
The last of our characters is Flim Flam. Some would even go so far as to say 'least' as well. Flim Flam's not exactly a popular character, likely due to the fact that he was an annoying child character brought in to breathe life into an aging franchise. It had worked when they brought in Scrappy Doo... it didn't work with Flim Flam. The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo ended the original continuous run for Scooby Doo on Saturday mornings. Scooby would return with a trio of movies in 1987-1988, and eventually come back to Saturday mornings with 1988's A Pup Named Scooby Doo.
This is what TV Tropes has to say about him:
The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo had an Ethnic Scrappy in the form of Flim-Flam. What makes this example amazing is that Scrappy himself was in the show, but due to a setup that made better use of Scrappy's attitude and behavior, he became Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. The result is that Flim-Flam became more of a Scrappy than the trope namer, even though the trope namer was there. This was also referenced in Mystery Incorporated, where Daphne mentions that Flim-Flam got a twenty-five to life sentence for his Con Artist antics. Surprisingly, when Warner Bros. decided to finally finish that series with Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost, Flim-Flam got a second chance, having gotten an Age Lift.
Laws broken: Grifting, scamming.
Why does he need therapy? He out-Scrappied Scrappy.
Only you can return the demons to the chest.
Why us?
Because you let them out.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/2509937
Six unbelievable tall tales. The irony is they're all telling the truth.
Interestingly, while there's no G1 tag on this site, 1986's My Little Pony: The Movie is titled exactly the same as 2017's My Little Pony: The Movie, and Megan Williams features fairly heavily in the 1986 flick. In case anyone was wondering, that's why that's the movie is tagged.
We really need G1 and G3 tags.
Oh boy, do I feel you.
Based on pics alone, I’m in for a treat.
5617549
This one's a little bit crazy.
Police Academy 2-4 were arguably even better. Then Steve Gutenberg quit and his character disappears with no explanation. Mission to Miami Beach was just okay.
I am vaguely aware that the franchise got a cartoon, but never really watched any of it. I read a picture book adaptation of one of the episodes in the library once and thought Callahan was really pretty. Of course, I was unaware that her character in the movies is literally nothing but fanservice. In the original movie, she was intended to be a female Dirty Harry, but that aspect got quickly got dropped.
"My hope is that this is written in a way that you need not be familiar with all (or even any) of the featured franchises to know what's going on."
Seemed to work pretty well for me, at least!
And thanks for the additional information. :)
5618711
Awesome, and you're welcome!
5617669
I never watched the cartoon either, but since I needed a police officer, it seemed like a logical choice in an '80s crossover.